It was twelve years ago when we had to get in line to tell the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) why Bell Canada should not be allowed to buy CTV. What I was trying to explain to the commissioners at the time was that the cultures of the two organizations where like oil and water. Neither understood the other. Neither was competent to question the other. It was a marriage made in Hell.
But who am I to question the desires of Bell Canada’s board of directors? Bell got what they wanted. CTV got an interfering and imperialistic boss.
More than a few mistakes and missed directions have occurred since then. How could there not be missteps by a company concerned more with this quarter’s dividend trying to run a company seeking to connect effectively with Canadians.
Bell Canada is a company disliked and distrusted by many of us in Eastern Canada. CTV wants to be trusted. And that is particularly true for the news department. News and public affairs programming are a staple of a television network. You only have to look south of the Canadian border to see what it can do to a country to have divisive news and public affairs broadcasting based on lies. After all, it is difficult and expensive to try to maintain a lie.
It is like the Lisa LaFlamme fiasco that is currently filling the void of social media on the Internet. That is the type of problem that news departments in broadcast media build for themselves. They believe, and rightly, I think, that the credibility of a news reader is based to a large extent on the reporting credentials of the individual.
By building the credibility of their news readers, they boost their audience—and the larger the audience the more money they get from their advertisers. Which is what it always comes to in any business.
I haven’t watched CTV news or public affairs shows for the last ten years. That leaves me out of those who can judge Ms. LaFlamme’s recent performance. I’ll bet she is as good as she was 15 years ago.
But there is a serious falling away from both print and broadcast media. I don’t think they are tapping into Canada’s younger audiences. Hell, I would like to know how many of my regular readers are under 40.
-30-
Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to: